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JOYCE MEYER

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Chapter 1 : Know Your Enemy

Be sober [well balanced and self-disciplined], be alert and


cautious at all times. That enemy of yours, the devil, prowls
around like a roaring lion [fiercely hungry], seeking someone to
devour.
1 Peter 5:8

Satan prowls around looking for someone to devour, but that


person doesn’t have to be you! If you get to know him and his
tactics, and if you remain watchful and alert, you can avoid being
deceived and trapped by him.

This humorous story is one way to look at how powerful the


devil truly is:

Carl Armerding recounted his experience of watching a


wildcat in a zoo.
“As I stood there,” he said, “an attendant entered the
cage through a door on the opposite side. He had nothing
in his hands but a broom. Carefully closing the door, he
proceeded to sweep the floor of the cage.” He observed
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that the worker had no weapon to ward off an attack by


the beast. In fact, when he got to the corner of the cage
where the wildcat was lying, he poked the animal with
the broom. The wildcat hissed at him and then lay down
in another corner of the enclosure. Armerding remarked
to the attendant, “You certainly are a brave man.”
“No, I ain’t brave,” he replied as he continued to sweep.
“Well, then, that cat must be tame.”
“No,” came the reply, “he ain’t tame.”
“If you aren’t brave and the wildcat isn’t tame, then I
can’t understand why he doesn’t attack you.”
Armerding said the man chuckled, then replied with an
air of confidence, “Mister, he’s old—and he ain’t got no
teeth.”
Moody Monthly, as quoted in
sermonillustrations.com
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I am not implying that Satan doesn’t have power. He does, and
we should take that fact seriously. But let’s remember that he is
not actually a roaring lion, he comes like a roaring lion! Jesus
is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and Satan can only portray an
imitation of what is real and true. The devil is a liar, and he can
only harm people who believe him and are deceived by him.

Before we even begin to think about spiritual warfare and how


to defeat the enemy, we should realize that we do not have to try
to defeat the devil, because he is already a defeated foe. Jesus
defeated him on the cross, and we merely apply by faith the
victory that is already ours through our faith in Christ.

When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities [those


supernatural forces of evil operating against us], He made
a public example of them [exhibiting them as captives in His
triumphal procession], having triumphed over them through the
cross.
Colossians 2:15

We know that Jesus has rescued us from darkness and transferred


us into the kingdom of light, which is God’s Kingdom (see Col.

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1:13).

Scripture helps us realize that we are fighting from a vantage


point of already having victory, rather than trying to win a victory.
As Paul writes to the Romans, Yet in all these things we are more
than conquerors and gain an overwhelming victory through Him
who loved us [so much that He died for us] (Romans 8:37).

The way we see ourselves is very important. We should see


ourselves as people with authority, as conquerors and victorious
believers. If we allow the devil to convince us that we are
weak, incapable, unable, and losers, then we will believe and
demonstrate those characteristics. We should agree with God and
believe what He says about us.

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One of Satan’s main objectives is to prevent us from knowing
who we are in Christ and knowing what our privileges are as
children of God. He works tirelessly to try to make us feel bad
about ourselves and believe we are not acceptable to God or
anyone else. As I stated above, what we believe about ourselves
is very important. It is more important than what anyone else
thinks.

Believing what God says about us in His Word and seeing our-
selves as He sees us is one way we let Him fight our battles for us.
We know before the battles even begin that we have the victory.
We may have to walk through some difficulties and stand strong
in faith, but we know how the story ends. Satan is a defeated foe
and he knows that. But if we don’t know it, he will take advantage
of that lack of knowledge and bluff his way into intimidating us.

The Devil Is a Liar


The first time Satan appears in the Bible is in Genesis 3, and
the first thing he does is attempt to make Eve suspicious of
God’s Word. The devil is a liar, but God is truth and therefore He
cannot lie. When Eve listened to the devil, she began to question
God’s goodness, and she took Satan’s bait and disobeyed God’s
instructions to her and Adam. God said they could eat of every
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tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil. He told them not to eat of that one or they would die (see
Genesis 2:17). God’s instructions were for Adam and Eve’s good,
but the devil made them sound as though God was depriving them
of something they should have and enjoy.

Like the worker in the zoo who knew the wildcat had no teeth
and was too old to harm him, we can know that Satan has no real
power except the power we give him through believing his lies.
To believe a lie is to be deceived, but when people are deceived,
they are not aware that they are deceived. They believe that
what they think is true and they act accordingly. One of the most
difficult tasks I have encountered in ministry is to try to convince
someone who is deeply deceived that they are wrong about what
they believe.

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Not only is the devil a liar, he is the father of lies. Jesus said
to a group of people listening to Him teach, “You are of your
father the devil, and it is your will to practice the desires [which
are characteristic] of your father. He was a murderer from the
beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no
truth in him. When he lies, he speaks what is natural to him, for he
is a liar and the father of lies and half-truths” (John 8:44).

Let’s think for a moment about how the fact that the devil is a
liar affects our lives. If we are unaware of Satan as a real threat
and if we do not know his character, he can easily deceive us
and we can end up believing many things that are not true. These
beliefs will keep us from enjoying the life that Jesus died for us
to have.

What if you lived all your life in poverty, barely getting by,
and when you were ready to die, someone told you that your
grandparents had left you an inheritance and you had been a
millionaire for the past forty years? You could have enjoyed a
totally different life than you had, but you didn’t know anything
about the inheritance, so you missed out on it even though it was
yours all along. This is what our lives are like when we believe
Satan’s lies and do not know the truth of God’s Word. The spiritual

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and material riches of Christ’s inheritance are amazing, but we
miss out on them because we lack knowledge of them. The truth
is God wants to bless us with good things, and the devil wants to
steal them from us.

Stop and ask yourself what lies you might be believing right
now that are preventing you from entering into the fullness of the
life Jesus wants you to have.

I can share my own experience as an example, and I am


confident that many people have had similar experiences. I was
a born-again Christian and attended church regularly. I even
became involved in activities and various ministry outreaches at
the church. I attended two different churches within a particular
denomination over a period of nine years, and although I did hear
the devil mentioned, I had no real concept of him as my personal
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enemy. I had no idea he was actively working against God, His
work on the earth, and His children.

My life was like the lives of most of the Christians I knew.


Although I attended church and believed in Jesus, I had no true
victory. I was easily angered, negative, resentful, unforgiving,
jealous, and critical. I had many other ungodly traits that were
being instigated by the devil, but I did not know he was behind
them or recognize him as a real enemy. Rather than seeing him
as the source of my problems, I usually blamed other people and
thought that if they would change, I could be happy and easier
to get along with.

Blaming others for our problems is another of Satan’s deceptions,


and it also started in the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve
were caught in their sin, Eve blamed the devil and Adam blamed
Eve, but God assigned responsibility and punishment to all of
them. Satan was guilty of lying to Adam and Eve, but they were
guilty of listening and believing what he said instead of what God
had said (see Genesis 3:1–19).

As long as we blame other people for our own bad behavior and
problems, we are caught in a never-ending cycle of misery. The
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only path to freedom is letting God show us truth, facing it, and
asking Him to help us change. If we have been treated unjustly,
God will vindicate us in due time.

The Devil Is Alive and Active


Corrie ten Boom said, “The first step on the way to victory is to
recognize the enemy.” She was right!

In the 1970s I read a book that was popular at the time called
Satan Is Alive and Well on Planet Earth, by Hal Lindsey. The
book opened my eyes to many things, and God used it to start
a revolutionary spiritual change in me. It introduced me to how
active Satan is on the earth and to what he is attempting to do.
For the first time I saw him as a real enemy that had to be dealt
with. I also became aware that many of my beliefs were just plain
wrong, according to Scripture. The devil had deceived me, and I
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was totally unaware of it.
For example, I believed for years that because I had been abused
sexually by my father, I would always have a second-rate life. I
was convinced that my life could never be as good as it would
have been had I not been abused. This thinking made me resentful
and left me feeling hopeless. But as I learned the truth of God’s
Word, I discovered promises from God, such as the one that He
would give me a double blessing for my former trouble and unjust
treatment:

Instead of your [former] shame you will have a double portion;


and instead of humiliation your people will shout for joy over
their portion. Therefore in their land they will possess double
[what they had forfeited]; everlasting joy will be theirs. For I, the
Lord, love justice; I hate robbery with a burnt offering. And I will
faithfully reward them and make an everlasting covenant with
them.
Isaiah 61:7–8

I believed I was a disappointment to God and that I should have


done something to get out of my situation as a child, although
I had no idea what that would have been. I told my mom what
my father was doing to me, and she didn’t believe me. A few

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years later, she even caught my father abusing me, but due to fear
she decided to ignore it and not deal with it at all. I asked other
relatives for help, and they didn’t want to get involved. So I just
gave up and decided that if I couldn’t get away from the situation,
I would survive it and leave home as soon as I was old enough to
do so. When I did leave home, I thought I left my problem behind,
but I carried it with me in my wounded soul, and sadly, suffered
many more years of mental and emotional torment because I
continued to believe the devil’s lies.

I carried a burden of guilt and shame with me at all times, and


not until I had studied God’s Word for many years did the truth
finally become stronger than the lies I had believed most of my
life. Thankfully I learned that Jesus bore my sin, guilt, and shame,
and that through my faith in Jesus, God considered me to be in
right standing with Him. I was, in fact, according to Scripture, the
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righteousness of God in Christ (see 2 Corinthians. 5:21). I was a
new creature in Christ; old things had passed away and all things
had become brand-new (see 2 Corinthians 5:17).

I learned that I had authority over Satan, and that I was called
and anointed by God to serve Him and do amazing things. I also
read that there are 5,467 promises from God in His Word, and I
was missing out on most of them through believing Satan’s lies
instead of knowing the truth. Jesus said that if we know the truth,
it will make us free (see John 8:32). That is what has happened to
me and to millions of others, and it will happen for you also.

These examples are only a few of the lies that God’s Word
uncovered in my life, lies that Satan told me and I believed. I
learned firsthand that the devil is indeed alive and well and active
against God’s people.

Taking Back Your Mind


Watchman Nee did some phenomenal writing about how
Satan attacks and uses the minds of believers to do his evil work.
Through his writings, I learned that the mind is the battlefield on
which we either win or lose the war with evil. In his book The
Spiritual Man, he wrote:
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Why is the Christian’s mental life so beset by evil spirits?


This can be answered in one sentence: believers afford
the evil spirits (or the devil) the opportunity to attack.

Why would believers give evil spirits the opportunity to attack


their minds? They would do so only because they are ignorant of
the devil’s wiles and methods of deception, or perhaps they are
ignorant of his existence entirely. The word wily, which is related
to the word wiles, means “cunning, crafty, and deceitful.” Wiles
are often described as “clever tricks,” and they are Satan’s way of
gaining entrance into a person’s life. Satan doesn’t knock on the
front door of our lives announcing his arrival, telling us who he is
and informing us that he has come to destroy us. He lies in wait
for an opportune time and then he lies, deceives, and cunningly
and craftily makes his way in, often undetected. Then he delights
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in hearing us blame God or other people for the trouble the devil
himself is instigating.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones observed in The Christian Warfare,


“There is nothing, I would say, which is more significant about
evangelicalism in this present century than the way in which it
has largely ignored this teaching concerning the devil and the
principalities and powers, and the ‘wiles’ of the devil” (p. 98).
We need to learn a great deal in this area. Not only do we need
to learn it, we also need to remind ourselves often that we have
an enemy who is always on the prowl, looking for someone to
devour.

People who do not learn to think for themselves are headed for
trouble. Do you ever think about what you have been thinking
about? If you would, then you would often find the source of
your problems. Our words, emotions, and actions are the results
of our thoughts. For example, it is impossible to spend the day
entertaining and meditating on negative thoughts and remain
happy and joyful. When our thoughts are negative and sour, our
mood becomes the same. When they are positive and hopeful, our
spirits lift and we live with an expectation that something good is
headed our way.

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The Bible tells us to resist the devil (see James 4:7), but we often
unknowingly assist him through receiving as our own any and
every thought he puts into our minds. You and I can and should
do our own thinking. We should choose our thoughts carefully
because they ultimately become the blueprint for our lives. Paul
writes in his letter to the Corinthian church:

The weapons of our warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh


and blood]. Our weapons are divinely powerful for the destruction
of fortresses. We are destroying sophisticated arguments and
every exalted and proud thing that sets itself up against the [true]
knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought and purpose
captive to the obedience of Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:4–5

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People who desire to win their battles must understand the
importance of this passage. First, it teaches us that we have
weapons. Our weapons are not physical, so they must be spiritual.
They cannot be seen in the natural realm, but they certainly
affect this realm. The primary weapon Paul is talking about in
2 Corinthians 10:4–5 is the Word of God. With that Word, we
recognize and defeat the lies and thoughts the devil whispers to
our minds. Please notice that we must take those thoughts captive.
It’s not something God or anyone else can do for us. We direct our
thoughts into obedience to the will of Christ. We learn to think as
God wants us to think, and He wants us to think according to His
Word. He wants us to be in agreement with Him and with His plan
and purpose for our lives and His Kingdom.

Renewing Your Mind


The renewal of the mind is the most important thing for the
person who has accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord. The new
believer must learn to think in an entirely new way. We might
have had years of practice thinking in ways that are contrary to
what God says, and learning to think in agreement with God’s
Word will take time, education, and effort. Paul writes that we
are not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed
and progressively changed [as you mature spiritually] by the
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renewing of your mind [focusing on godly values and ethical


attitudes] (Romans 12:2). In other words, we are not to think or
behave as worldly people do. Instead, we are to be transformed by
renewing our minds according to God’s Word, so we may prove
what God’s will is and experience the good plan and purpose He
has for each one of us.

The word transformed as used in Romans 12:2 means “to be


changed completely according to a new inner reality.” God does
this work in us. We become a new creation (see 2 Corinthians
5:17), and as we learn to think and behave according to that
new reality, our entire life changes. This happens gradually and
depends on our gaining knowledge of God’s Word, will, and ways,
and on our willingness to submit our thinking and actions to it.

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If we allow ourselves to be conformed to the world, we will
think as they tell us to think and do what they tell us to do. But
thankfully, as children of God, we have another option—to be
transformed into the image of Christ and live the wonderful life
He has provided for us through His death and resurrection.

The devil fights relentlessly against the good plan God has for
us, and he does it through lies, deceptions, and various strategies,
attempting to keep us distracted through sending trouble and
difficulties our way. New believers are trying to grow in their
relationship with Jesus through studying the Word of God because
this is how they learn right from wrong. The Holy Spirit, Who
lives in us and is our Helper in life, as well as our Teacher, sows
the Word into our hearts, but Satan comes immediately and tries
to steal it in many ways.

Jesus said that there are times when the seed (God’s Word) is
sown, but trouble and persecution come before it has time to take
root. Immediately those who hear it are offended and displeased,
and they fall away (see Mark 4:16–17). This often happens to
people who have the mistaken idea that being a Christian means
that God will make everything comfortable and wonderful for
them. Teaching arises occasionally from different parts of the

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Body of Christ asserting that all the believer needs to do is look to
Christ and He will give the victory. But Paul writes that we are to
put on the full armor of God and to cast down thoughts that don’t
agree with God’s Word (see Ephesians 6:11; 2 Corinthians 10:5).

We can see that God has given us responsibility in this process.


He never fails to do His part, but He won’t do our part for us. He
wants us to actively participate with Him. We are partners with
God in His work.

It’s so important to understand this because standing firm in


faith is especially challenging when we go through trials and
tribulations. When the enemy is attacking believers in some way
that is painful or uncomfortable for them, I frequently hear them
say, “I don’t understand why God let this happen. If He is good
and He delivers us from our problems when we pray, then why
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is this happening to me?” God doesn’t become angry with us
when we ask such questions, but those questions are immature
and typically come from immature believers, and they usually go
unanswered. God wants and expects us to grow beyond making
such statements when trouble comes our way. God wants to hear
us say, “I trust You, Lord, and I love You just as much in hard
times as I do in good ones.”

I also find it interesting that we ask why negative things happen


to us, but do not seem confused when other people are having
trouble. We are quick to remind others that God is faithful and
to encourage them to stay strong, yet when we are hurting, our
thoughts and emotions can become unstable and cause us to say
things we should not say.

The writer of Hebrews teaches that we should look away from


all that will distract us from Jesus, who is the Author and Perfecter
of our faith (see Hebrews 12:2). We look to Him, and He keeps
us strong and focused on the victory that is on its way. Waiting
patiently in faith for breakthrough while God is fighting with us
and for us is part of what we must learn to do. God promises to
help us, but the timing and the way in which He does it is up to
Him. Paul makes our part clear in Ephesians 6:13:
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Therefore, put on the complete armor of God, so that you


will be able to [successfully] resist and stand your ground
in the evil day [of danger], and having done everything
[that the crisis demands], to stand firm [in your place,
fully prepared, immovable, victorious].

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Chapter 2 : Do All the Crisis Demands
…and having done everything [that the crisis demands], to stand
firm [in your place, fully prepared, immovable, victorious].
Ephesians 6:13

Any time we find ourselves in any kind of crisis, it’s a battle


in our lives. During these times we must not remain passive or
neutral. We must act! We cannot do what we do not know to do,
but God expects us to do what we can. I often say that if we do
what we can do while leaning on God, He will do what we cannot
do as we stand in faith and wait for Him to grant us full victory.
As Paul instructed, let us do all the crisis demands and then stand
firmly in our place (see Ephesians 6:13). As we do what we can
do, we can be assured that God will fight for us and that we will
always win in the end. God will fight our battles for us, but we
have to show up for the fight.

It is useless to know what to do if we do not actually do it.


Some people procrastinate, thinking they will do what needs to
be done, but their plan is to do it later. That type of thinking is
deceptive because for most of them, later is never a good time

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either. Procrastination is like a credit card—it is a lot of fun until
you get the bill. Putting off easy things only makes them harder.
Be a person of action; do what needs to be done, and never put off
until tomorrow what you should do today.

I mentioned that letting God fight our battles certainly doesn’t


mean that we sit idly by and do nothing. First, we should be very
active spiritually. We should praise and worship God and be
thankful for all He has done for us and for what we expect Him to
do in the future. We should also lift up our shields of faith, which
quench all the fiery darts of the enemy (see Ephesians 6:16).
That means we stand strong in faith, believing God’s Word and
promises no matter what our circumstances may be. We also need
to continue to be faithful in prayer, not only praying for our own
needs but interceding for others as well.

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During times of crisis one thing we can do is be good to other
people, helping those in trouble and meeting their needs as we are
able. I often find that although I cannot solve my own problem,
God will use me to help someone else if I am willing to do so.

For example, think about a person who needs a job. Of course


that person should pray for God to give him one, but his part is to
relentlessly look for a job. A passive person might just sit by and
wait for a miracle, but a man or woman cooperating with God and
doing his or her part would not only pray but also be aggressive in
searching for employment. Such a person should be willing to do
any job he can get, even if it is not the perfect one or the one he
truly desires. Doing something fruitful while waiting for the ideal
situation is always wise. Do something or you’ll do nothing at all!

I often think of the Bible story about the sick man who lay by
the pool of Bethesda for thirty-eight years waiting for a miracle
(see John 5:1–9). He had one chance to be healed each year, when
an angel came and stirred the water. When the angel moved the
water, the first person to step into it received a miracle.

When Jesus noticed the man lying there and knew how long
he had been in his infirm condition, He asked the man, “Do you
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want to get well?” (John 5:6). The man’s response to Jesus gives
us great insight into his real problem. He said he had no one to
put him into the pool and that even when he tried, someone else
always got ahead of him.

Both of these statements make it sound as if he was filled with


self-pity. Jesus asked if the man wanted to get well, and his answer
wasn’t a resounding “Yes!” It was filled with excuses. Jesus didn’t
seem to feel sorry for the man, nor did He offer any words of
sympathy, but He did tell him what to do. Jesus said, “Get up;
pick up your pallet and walk” (John 5:8).

Now we might wonder what the man was supposed to do if he


was so sick that all he could do was lie beside the pool for thirty-
eight years. Obviously the man could walk because he told Jesus
that when he tried to get in the pool, someone always beat him
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to it. I think it is safe to say that this man was waiting for God to
fight his battles for him, but he wasn’t willing to do what the crisis
demanded while he was waiting.

I think the man was sicker in his soul than he was in his body.
His attitude was filled with I can’t, and when that is the case
for people, just like this man, they don’t even try. I don’t know
how far the man could walk or even how often he managed the
strength to walk at all, but surely in thirty-eight years he could
have wiggled his way over to the edge of the pool to assure that
he would be the first to fall into the water when the angel came.

Do Something
Doing nothing is a terrible waste of the abilities that God has
given us. Even if we cannot do what needs to be done in our unique
situation, we can always do something. I was recently reminded
of a principle that I’d forgotten: When we’re faced with a project
that seems insurmountable, the best way to tackle it is a little bit at
a time. We can do anything if we just do what we can do no matter
how tiny it might be. For example, if your closet or office needs to
be cleared of excess clutter, then work ten to fifteen minutes each
day on it, and soon it will be a finished project instead of one that
makes you feel overwhelmed and guilty.

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I once read an article about reducing stress, and it said that
messy work or living spaces make us feel stressed. I know that
is true for me. I feel a lot calmer and in charge of my life if my
surroundings are neat and organized. But I am the only one who
can keep them that way, and doing so requires constant vigilance.
I must do a little something on a regular basis in order to end up
with what I want.

Most of us offer excuses for our lack of effort instead of taking


responsibility and simply doing what needs to be done, but
that is the absolute worst choice we can make. Making excuses
imprisons us in deception and keeps us stuck in places we dislike.
I once heard that excuses are just reasons stuffed with a lie, and I
think that’s true.

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We live in a society in which being irresponsible is becoming
more normal and acceptable than taking responsibility. This is
causing problems that may put an end to life as we know it if we
ignore them much longer. God has given us a lot, but He expects
us to be diligent and responsible to take care of it. If we don’t,
we’ll end up losing it.

Here are a few examples of what I’m talking about. If you live
in a free country, someone paid the price for your freedom at some
time, but you must do your part to keep it or it will be lost. God
may have helped you get a good job, but if you don’t do your part
to be a valued employee, the time will come when you will lose
the job. Jesus paid for our salvation and it comes to us as a gift,
but we must do what needs to be done in order to resist the devil
and stay strong.

The way to bring about any change is to be active and do what


you can do!

By now you may be thinking, Wait a minute, Joyce. I thought


this book was about letting God fight my battles, but it seems that
you keep telling me what I need to do.
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Letting God fight our battles doesn’t mean we do nothing while


we wait for God to do everything. It’s also not about trying to do
what only God can do while we passively refuse to do what we
can do. Someone said that between the big things we cannot do
and the small things we will not do, the danger is that we will do
nothing. If we don’t plant seed, we don’t get a harvest; and if we
take no action, then nothing ever changes.

It is amazing to me how most people who do nothing expect other


people to do for them what they should have done themselves. As
much as God loves us, He will not do everything for us because
that would just enable us to be lazy, inactive, and therefore,
complacent and unhappy. The laziest person on the earth is the
unhappiest person on the earth. Why? Because God did not fill us
with abilities, gifts, talents, strength, and creativity so we could sit
around and do nothing. We either use what we have or we end up
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losing it. Ask God daily to show you what you can do and also to
keep you from trying to do what only He can do.

For example:

• You cannot change your spouse or your child, but you can
pray for God to make whatever changes He wants to make.
And while you are waiting on God, you can stay busy working
with the Holy Spirit to let Him make the changes in you that
He wants to make.
• You cannot make people like you, but you can be a likable
person.
• You cannot make your employer give you the promotion you
want, but you can be the best worker he has. You can be on
time, or even come in early, every day. You can go the extra
mile on your job and do more than is expected of you. You
can do all of this unto the Lord because of your love and
appreciation for all He has done for you. Then if God chooses
to promote you, it won’t matter what your employer wants or
thinks, because what God orders always happens.
• If you are seriously out of shape and tired all the time, and you
know you need to exercise regularly, you can take small steps
to become healthier. You cannot start a program and get in

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shape overnight, but you can begin by doing what you can do
each day, even if it is only walking around the block.

When to Pray and When to Act


Once when I was praying and asking God to help someone with
a problem, God whispered to my heart, “Stop asking Me to do
things that you could do yourself, but just don’t want to do.” What
God said didn’t need any interpretation. I wasn’t at all confused
about it, and I knew immediately that He was right. I was asking
God to provide something I could easily provide, but apparently,
I had not been willing to make the sacrifice necessary to do so.
Inactivity is actually dangerous for the believer because when we
are doing nothing, and the devil finds us passive and lazy—then
he can gain access to our lives.

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We should pray all the time, including times when we intend
to take action. We should never take any kind of action without
acknowledging God in it. For example, I might have prayed in
the situation with my friend in need, “Father,_________ needs
money to pay her rent this month because of an unexpected car
repair. I am willing to pay it for her if that is what You would
like me to do.” Then, if I sense peace about my intended action, I
should go ahead with it.

There are times when we pray and then act, and there are times
when all we can do is pray because no action we can take will
help or change our situation. We must discern between these two
times and always be ready to act if we can and should do so.

Matthew 25 offers an example of people who did not do what


they should have done and then expected those who had done it
to get them out of trouble. In this parable, ten virgins took their
lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five were foolish,
thoughtless, silly, and careless, but the other five were diligent,
wise, far-sighted, practical, and sensible.

The bridegroom was delayed and they all fell asleep, but the
extra wait was no problem for the wise because they had brought
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extra oil with them just in case they had to wait longer than
expected. The foolish ones didn’t consider bringing extra oil
because they were not the type to do anything extra. When the
bridegroom did come, the foolish virgins were not ready and were
left behind, but the wise went into the wedding feast. This story
ends with this instruction:

Therefore, be on the alert [be prepared and ready], for you do not
know the day nor the hour [when the Son of Man will come].
Matthew 25:13

In other words, stay active, always doing what you can do,
because that is the safest course of action. Letting God fight our
battles doesn’t render us passive and inactive, but it does assure us
that we don’t need to be stressed trying to do things we cannot do
or don’t know how to do. God will fight for us!
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Evil Isn’t God’s Fault
Many people say the reason they cannot or will not believe in
God is because they see so much evil in the world. Their reasoning
is that if God were good as people say He is, He would not allow
all the hunger, murder, violence, drug addiction, homelessness,
and other equally vile things we see around us or in the news each
day. My question is: Are we waiting on God to solve all of these
problems, or is He waiting on us? Think about this story:

A certain preacher and an atheistic barber were once


walking through the city slums.

Said the barber to the preacher: “This is why I cannot


believe in a God of love. If God was as kind as you say,
He would not permit all this poverty, disease, and squalor.
He would not allow these poor bums to be addicted to
dope and other character-destroying habits. No, I cannot
believe in a God who permits these things.”

The minister was silent until they met a man who was
especially unkempt and filthy. His hair was hanging down
his neck, and he had a half-inch of stubble on his face.

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Said the minister: “You can’t be a very good barber or
you wouldn’t permit a man like that to continue living in
this neighborhood without a haircut and a shave.”

Indignantly the barber answered: “Why blame me for


that man’s condition? I can’t help it that he is like that. He
has never come to my shop. I could fix him up and make
him look like a gentleman!”

Giving the barber a penetrating look, the minister said:


“Then don’t blame God for allowing people to continue
in their evil ways, when He is constantly inviting them to
come and be saved.”
from “The Preacher and the Atheist
Barber,” sermonillustrator.org

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We can easily see from this story that most of the world’s
problems could be solved if only the people with the problems
would do what they could do, or if other people who are praying
for them would do what they could do. We have many problems in
our world today. Actually there are so many problems that I admit
they seem overwhelming, but perhaps of all of our problems the
biggest one is not doing what we can do. We cannot do it all, but
we must refuse to do nothing.

So any person who knows what is right to do but does not do it, to
him it is sin.
James 4:17
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